Leeds Lost Schools

[Aeldfrith]

spudoil wrote: rod bottom wrote: mr stag was an english teacher,mad as a box of frogs but a top bloke.hang on,am i on about mr watson?did mr stag have a spiv moustache? Yep the moustache was an epic... Mr Stag also did P.E. I think. and I seem to remember Mr Watson had a glass eye.

[electricaldave]

The story with Central High School was that Leeds Boys Grammar were most pleased to see it first merged with Thoresby and then closed - ok so technically it moved but no-one will ever convince me that sticking this name on the entrance to a much lower standard school was a move.The problem for Leeds Grammar was that Central Higher Grade School used to get results as good, if not better than them, which makes paying to go there seem like poor value if you can get your children into Central High.I remember Rocky Rockcliffe, I had no idea that Mr Sterne had worked there for so long - there seemed to be quite a few WW2 refugees as teachers, Jewish, Polish etc.Looking back, maybe I wish I had made more of the opportunity that getting into Central High represented, I did reasonably but now I know I was capable of so much more.It was an odd school in some ways due to the limits imposed by the site, you had to go to Woodhouse to do joinery, to West Park to do sport, to the Thoresby Annexe across Cookridge street from Kitson to do art, dinner was in the basement of the Civic Theatre, some went to the Civic Hall to do computor science -no doubt there were other bits and pieces scattered about too.

[sluginc]

angel wrote: Did anyone see the BBC2 documentary last night following girls from Sandford secondary modern.Is this the same Sandford that is in Bramley? Does anyone know where that school was? Sandford school was just off Broad Lane ( near to the old Sandford pub ), it changed to Sandford Middle School, then to Sandford Primary School. It was demolished a few years ago to make way for a brand new school called Hollybush Primary. The new school was built on the playing fields of the old Sandford school and the playing fields for the new school are where the old school used to be. The only remaining bit is the caretakers house.     The other school in the area that was demolished was The Benjamin Gott High School just off Lenhurst Ave, LS5.

[Bert]

Hi Electricaldave. Mr Sterne was my favourite teacher. A lovely man who maintained discipline just by commanding total respect without ever needing even to raise his voice. He ran the school philatelic society in my day. A bonus was that it was a joint one with Thoresby. It was the only joint activity between the two schools then. It was always obvious that more than a few of the members from both schools had little interest in stamps and a lot of interest in the opposite sex.Mr Sterne also ran the school table tennis club. He was brilliant at it himself - standing with his belly almost touching the table and holding the bat like a pen, and defeating all comers effortlessly.There must have been a major increase in numbers in your day requiring a lot more space, because in my time woodwork and metalwork, (in the basement), dinners (ground floor) and art (top floor near the science labs) were all done in the school. We too had to go to West Park for sports though, and to Templenewsam for the athletics day. I just hated the cross country run at West Park with the gruelling run up the steep hill at the far end.

[peterg]

Earlier on I mentioned St. Michael's College. I was recently informed by a friend who was also at the College and still lives in Leeds that it has now closed. Can anyone confirm this?There was a mention of a very tall Mr Noon. At College at my time there was a James Noon who was very tall. It might be the same person.Regarding the MG crash (Johnnyboy), I remember there was a photo in the evening paper. I was working by then, but I remember the Reception Engineer where I worked had a similar MG and showed the photo.

[Arry Awk]

peterg wrote: Earlier on I mentioned St. Michael's College. I was recently informed by a friend who was also at the College and still lives in Leeds that it has now closed. Can anyone confirm this?There was a mention of a very tall Mr Noon. At College at my time there was a James Noon who was very tall. It might be the same person.Regarding the MG crash (Johnnyboy), I remember there was a photo in the evening paper. I was working by then, but I remember the Reception Engineer where I worked had a similar MG and showed the photo. Re the very tall Mr Noon; Wasn't he the film directorfor that classic Western,'High Noon?' L O L or Not!

[johnnyg]

peterg wrote: Earlier on I mentioned St. Michael's College. I was recently informed by a friend who was also at the College and still lives in Leeds that it has now closed. Can anyone confirm this? I think St Michaels for a time was used by Mount St Marys and is now being used temporarily, or will be shortly, by St George's Crypt.Here is an article from the Evening Post on 8 December 2008http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Pla ... 4769197.jp

[Bramley4woods]

electricaldave wrote: The story with Central High School was that Leeds Boys Grammar were most pleased to see it first merged with Thoresby and then closed - ok so technically it moved but no-one will ever convince me that sticking this name on the entrance to a much lower standard school was a move.The problem for Leeds Grammar was that Central Higher Grade School used to get results as good, if not better than them, which makes paying to go there seem like poor value if you can get your children into Central High.I remember Rocky Rockcliffe, I had no idea that Mr Sterne had worked there for so long - there seemed to be quite a few WW2 refugees as teachers, Jewish, Polish etc.Looking back, maybe I wish I had made more of the opportunity that getting into Central High represented, I did reasonably but now I know I was capable of so much more.It was an odd school in some ways due to the limits imposed by the site, you had to go to Woodhouse to do joinery, to West Park to do sport, to the Thoresby Annexe across Cookridge street from Kitson to do art, dinner was in the basement of the Civic Theatre, some went to the Civic Hall to do computor science -no doubt there were other bits and pieces scattered about too. It was a political decision to dispense with the old Grammar schools with all their war memorials, school songs, and up to 100 years of traditions, and an act of destruction I didn't approve of. But people I've met tell me that the alternative schools for those that didn't get in were sometimes just awful. IE if you lived in an agricultural area the school could be dedicated to turn out farm labourers and that's it. However in Leeds we were probably luckier but I went to Wyther Park Primary + Juniors (and thence on to Central) and there the headmaster, Mr Turner, said "What can you do with them, half of them are under a psychiatrist" - Nice Eh ? I have no recollection of any facilities there for science, woodwork, or metalwork in the "Seniors". Kirkstall Road School was better and some parents fought to get their kids there, the girls went on to Sandford which was, I think, a proper secondary modern.At Central "Ezra" Turner taught me geography. He was of "biblical" age, (old testament rather than new) and appeared to hate children. He'd kept on working after retirement to fund his son through university. His task was futile anyway in a class where not one child out of the whole year group (1958, 150 kids) had ever been out of the country, and never envisioned the possibility."Ernustus" Sterne (A nickname he gave himself) expressed openly racist opinions about Germans (Easy because we never saw or had contact with any) because of the six million Jews killed in WW2. Understandable, but would be inappropriate nowadays."Rags" (On account of his poor dress standards) Buckley was the worlds most unfit chain smoking PE teacher. He was famous for being spectacularly unable to carry out the exercises he was supposed to be demonstrating. At Cookridge St. Baths we used to wait 'till his back was turned and then all shout "RAGS" and before he could turn round everybody had ducked under the water. There were no consequences for us."Humph" Humphries (Armour "Friggery-feekoes", "Fiffies" bananas) had a lot of unfortunate mannerisms and stock pep-talk type phrases. Sadly he seemed to be unaware that they only work the first time if that. Also his collars were too small and he had to strain his neck out of them like a tortoise about twice a minute. "Mack" Mackiewitz tought us chemistry, he had been in Warsaw in WW2 and described throwing grenades with a glass fuse filled with acid out of 6th floor apartment block windows and then seeing the legs, heads, and torsos flying past. Some of the glass fuses were cracked and leaking and caused the grenade to detonate as it was being armed, "After that an order came round to lick the glass fuse [to detect the acid] before it was pushed into the plastic explosive"His English was only fair and I'm now ashamed to say we gave him a hard time for that.I also could have learnt more at Central, but we were just Leeds kids and is educating kids not what schools get their money for? Looking back it does appear to me that much of the teaching was out of time and always had been, IE behind the need rather than in advance. It was OK if you could get a livelyhood building Victorian Mills or Vitriol Works etc.

[Bert]

Hi Bramley4Woods. You and I must have overlapped at Central High . Yes I now remember Rags Buckley too - your description is brilliant - and Mr Mackiewitz. I also now remember Mr Sterne making disparaging remarks about the Germans as you say, although it isn't something I would have remembered about him if I hadn't been reminded. At that time with the war not long over you'd have been hard pressed to find many in England not making disparaging remarks about the Germans, and as a Jewish refugee from Hitler I suppose he would have thought he had more right to beg our indulgence than most. Ezra Turner also taught me Geography, and it was one of the few subjects I got a better-than-mediocre result in at 'O' Level. We had some great teachers and some not so great, as in most schools I suspect. I'm in absolutely no doubt that the reason I didn't do better than I did was that I was an idle little sod more interested in jazz, girls, Tetley's and fags than in work. The kids in my year who, unlike me, had self-discipline did well and some did brilliantly.

[urf]

spudoil wrote: rod bottom wrote: mr stag was an english teacher,mad as a box of frogs but a top bloke.hang on,am i on about mr watson?did mr stag have a spiv moustache? Yep the moustache was an epic... Hello, just stumbled across the site and this thread. I also went to Dorset then Oak Tree in the 70s. I remember Mr Stag very well! He taught my class how to do italic style writing. Anyone remember Mr Desborough the games teacher at Oak Tree? I remember when we all went on a school trip to Filey or Hornsea (can't remember which one) and a few of the lads went on a bit of nicking spree, nothing major, just a few sweets and small toys. About a day after we returned he got all the boys into the gym and asked us who did any nicking on the school trip (I guess one of the shop owners must have complained to the school). Anyway, nobody owned up and the next thing he goes and throws a huge mud ball at one of the gym walls and it makes a loud splat noise! "Do you know what that is on the wall?" he asked us, "Bullshit" he said "Because that's what I'm getting from you lot!" Well, you can imagine us little boys (don't forget that Mr Desborough was 'huge') were frightened to buggery. And it was the first time I ever heard a teacher use 'rude language'! I can't remember if anyone was ever caught.